The Deer Kings

I read The Deer Kings in a creaky old country house that stands beside a forest which I am fairly convinced is haunted and which is most certainly overrun with deer who frequently come quite close to the house. Thanks to the particular ways in which this novel is terrifying, I too am now haunted, and I will never look at a deer the same way again.

The Deer Kings is a pitch-perfect take on the innate horror of run-down towns and the run-down people who infest them. It reads like both an homage to classic small-town horror stories and an update that transforms the tired old misogynistic and queerphobic tropes common to such classic works into something new, fresh, and rather more sympathetic to the mores of 21st-century readers. show more Wagner’s subtle prose is fluid and unobtrusive in a way ideally suited to the novel, supporting and displaying the vivid characters and fast-moving plot without distracting through the over-the-top language one sometimes finds in books of this type. Using just the right amount of description to reveal without ever dumping, Wagner builds an ever-more-tangible atmosphere of dread from the book’s first pages through its inevitably horrific conclusion.

I would say that The Deer Kings is not a book for the faint of heart—it is very, very scary—but then again I am a total coward when it comes to horror and I absolutely loved it. Perhaps the easily frightened might best enjoy this one with the lights on, a hot drink near at hand, and a trustworthy person or animal close enough for comfort.

I received a free digital advance copy of this novel from the author in exchange for my review. show less